[Saoshyant]

Gray & Gold or Blue & Silver.

It's the only objectively correct choice.

Actually, even though I'm getting blue, I'm going to try gold as there's a chance previous silver KZ cables might fit. Worst comes to worst, it's not like I'm going to be looking at the cable much.

 

[actorlife]

• Just did the slater zs3 mod. Is your red tube leaning on one side inside? Actually one side did not have the foam I guess it fell out when I took the burgundy mesh off when I first got them. Now for a listen. It does sound clearer with bass sounding less boomy. Mids sound more pronounced as well. Hooray Slater. Rhanks.

 

[Slater]

I've tried the ZS3 mod Slater mentioned. Mine had one tiny difference than his model - in mine the red mesh and the black piece of foam are actually glued together. Of course, it's easy to tear them apart, but I didn't have the curiosity to experiment with combos of foam/red mesh on/off. I just removed the whole thing.

One most noticeable change is the reduced bloat of the bass... actually there's hardly any bloat at all. I didn't notice that much change in the mids/highs, though they do seem a bit elevated/prominent, but that could just be the effect of the reduced bass (which there's still plenty off, rest assured). In any case, I'm keeping them this way. And thanks for the mod, Slater!

In other news, eagerly awaiting ZS5 impressions from some of the early birds in this thread.

So, I think what was going on with yours was this - the bottom of the red screen is covered in an adhesive ring. This ring of sticky adhesive extends beyond the plastic lip of the nozzle. I'm willing to be that your black foam piece was floating around inside the nozzle (like mine was on 1 side or 1 of my pairs), and at some point the foam just got stuck to the underside of the red screen via the adhesive.

The 2 aren't supposed to be attached from the factory - I think the black foam falls on some (many) units while being bounced around in shipping, during use, etc.

Glad you liked the mod. I think it's definitely an improvement on an already great KZ in-ear, and the mod is so easy to perform!

I'm actually going to play around with reusing the foam piece on other IEMs - especially bass-anemic and/or overly bright ones. It should just be a matter of inserting the piece of foam down into the nozzle and seeing if there are any improvements. There has already been similar experimentation when he ED9 was all that and a bag of chips. People were removing the foam from the shiny gold filter & inserting it into the dull brass one to see what sound changes it made.

 

[Slater]

• Just did the slater zs3 mod. Is your red tube leaning on one side inside? Actually one side did not have the foam I guess it fell out when I took the burgundy mesh off when I first got them. Now for a listen. It does sound clearer with bass sounding less boomy. Mids sound more pronounced as well. Hooray Slater. Rhanks.

Well, the plastic tube (which I have verified is just a piece of heat shrink tubing that hasn't been shrunk) meets the nozzle at an angle. In other words, it comes straight out of the driver, then the plastic tube ends right where the nozzle itself bends at a 30ish degree angle. Is that what you mean? If so, then it is installed properly.

You can't tell from this diagram because it's a top view:

If you want, I can do up a side view diagram that shows the plastic tube in relation to the nozzle angle.

What you want to make sure ISN'T happening is that you have one of the early (defective) ones with the crushed sound tube. Like this:

 

[Dark Helmet]

I was going to order the KZ ZST, but think I'll order the ZS3 instead, as I prefer a strong bass and have read the ZS3 are stronger at the low end. Glad you're enjoying yours.

I quite like the KZ ED9's I got a couple of weeks ago. Listening to seem early Genesis with them right now.

using a size down from your typical tips size might help with treble retrieval and the bass tightens up. I can see how people say that the ZS3 can sound veiled. For me the difference between the medium tips and small tips are night and day.

 

[Dark Helmet]

I want to buy earphone under 20$...and i love bass ...so any suggestions? , please..

KZ ZS3 have great bass, but maybe not basshead bass. I find it to be plenty without cluttering the mix.

 

[actorlife]

Yeah it seems to lean on

Well, the plastic tube (which I have verified is just a piece of heat shrink tubing that hasn't been shrunk) meets the nozzle at an angle. In other words, it comes straight out of the driver, then the plastic tube ends right where the nozzle itself bends at a 30ish degree angle. Is that what you mean? If so, then it is installed properly.

You can't tell from this diagram because it's a top view:

If you want, I can do up a side view diagram that shows the plastic tube in relation to the nozzle angle.

What you want to make sure ISN'T happening is that you have one of the early (defective) ones with the crushed sound tube. Like this:

Yes it seems to lean on one side. Not crushed just both leaning on the side.

 

[bhazard]

ZS5 looks like a winner. Let's see if the SQ is there.

 

[Slater]

ZS5 frequency graph:



No x-axis for reference though. But one thing you can infer from the graph is it looks to be pretty lean on the midrange.

Can anyone read Chinese? I want to know what it says with the "xxx 45KHz xxx". Especially since only some animals can hear that high.

 

[SomeTechNoob]

ZS5 frequency graph:



No x-axis for reference though. But one thing you can infer from the graph is it looks to be pretty lean on the midrange.

Can anyone read Chinese? I want to know what it says with the "xxx 45KHz xxx". Especially since only some animals can hear that high.

I have really schiit chinese - can speak some but my reading is garbage. Putting into google translate for pinyin and translating to the best of my ability seems to be something along the lines of:

"can maintain 45khz frequency". The google translate seems accurate enough as well. There are some words in there that I don't know but I can understand about 75% of it. Hopefully someone else with better chinese can come along and confirm lol.

 

[nocchi]

ZS5 frequency graph:



No x-axis for reference though. But one thing you can infer from the graph is it looks to be pretty lean on the midrange.

Can anyone read Chinese? I want to know what it says with the "xxx 45KHz xxx". Especially since only some animals can hear that high.

Well according to google translate:

"Professional acoustic tuning ZS5 sound can be in the 45KHz band still maintain a certain sensitivity response, which is almost more than 95% of the market headphones can not do the level"

 

[WilliamCruz]

hope its not another bassy iem

 

[TheWongWrong]

ZS5 frequency graph:



No x-axis for reference though. But one thing you can infer from the graph is it looks to be pretty lean on the midrange.

Can anyone read Chinese? I want to know what it says with the "xxx 45KHz xxx". Especially since only some animals can hear that high.

Well what it's trying to say is that it supposedly "maintains a quick/tight frequency response even at up to 45khz, which is a standard that 95% of headphones in the market cannot achieve" which yeah, should obviously be taken with many, many, many pinches of salt.

 

[TheWongWrong]

Well what it's trying to say is that it supposedly "maintains a quick/tight frequency response even at up to 45khz, which is a standard that 95% of headphones in the market cannot achieve" which yeah, should obviously be taken with many, many, many pinches of salt.

Lol this photo says it only gets to 20khz, which I'm fine with but why lie about 45khz then suddenly telling us the truth afterwards??

 

[TheWongWrong]

Lol this photo says it only gets to 20khz, which I'm fine with but why lie about 45khz then suddenly telling us the truth afterwards??

Yo is there a photo there cuz I can't seem to upload one